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They live in a world where evil clerics all channel negative energy. Religion Check DC 10 because its common knowledge.
Well i think they can feel some sinister energy hitting them and leaving them wounded. They would most certainly raise an alarm.
If they can hear the cleric chanting then they can guess the source.
Considering the burst of channel energy is centered on the cleric and does not affect those with total cover means the guards probably saw the cleric doing it. Channel energy also requires a holy symbol so that is going to make it even more obvious what is going on. Even if the guards do not realize the cleric is channeling energy they are going to realize he is using some sort of supernatural power to harm them.
Worst case scenario is the guards need to make a DC 10 knowledge roll. Personally I would probably say it should be even less.
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TL/DR version: The channel probably didn't affect most or any of the folks in rooms 9 & 10, and if it did, they probably would have a pretty good idea who did it.
My reasoning: The cleric might not be chanting, but must present her holy symbol, so there is a visual clue. Also, Mysterious Stranger is correct that Channel Energy is a burst, so she needs line of effect. Looking at the map, that seems incredibly unlikely that all those targets are in line of effect given the geometry of the hall, doors, and rooms. And even if they were, any affected ones would be able to see the cleric presenting her holy symbol as the negative energy washed over them, assuming nobody did anything else to block line of sight without blocking line of effect (e.g. darkness or fog cloud.) And of course, if she had line of sight to affect them, then she could use selective channeling, per the inverse of the OP's original logic.
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Supernatural abilities (like channel) may not require verbal components,but channel does require the cleric to present their holy symbol, and is likely accompanied by visible manifestations (based on the more general ruling that all spells have visual manifestations). Channel is also a burst centered on the cleric, so it wont hit anyone that there isn't line of effect to. If the cleric was unaware of a creature it's unlikely the cleric hit them (unless they were invisible or something) but it is technical possible. But on the other side of a wall from the cleric it wont do anything.
So, anyone hit by the cleric's channel likely knows exactly who did what, even if they don't know exactly what they did. However, there were probably less people hit since it sounds like several people were in other rooms around doors and down hallways and channel effectively will only hit those in a 30ft burst, which is basically like drawing 30ft straight lines radiating out from the caster in 360° around the caster. If the line hits a wall (or a closed door) it will stop.
I imagine some sort of effect forming that burst, whether it's dark mist rising, purple lightning lashing out, screaming souls rushing out etc.
I don't imagine it being a secret as to who just did something with dark magic, though exactly what might not be known to the dregs that guard a prison. Maybe knowledge (religion) DC 10 to know it was negative energy channeled if that matters.
Thanks everyone, it seems like it wouldn’t have actually affected them, since they were completely out of sight - thankfully play was paused before anything could happen, so will pick it back up there tonight.
Well it's important to know that line of sight and line of effect are two different things, though are similar under optimal conditions for line of sight.
Line of sight is pretty clearly anything you can see.
But less introduce a fog cloud which you cannot see through. If we have a cleric situated with a fog cloud where he cannot see anything beyond the 5ft adjacent to him he has line of sight only to the adjacent squares. Those squares are empty. However, all the other squares in this 30ft circular fog bank centered on the cleric are filled with zombies. The cleric can't see them, but knows they're there (somehow).
He uses channel and it will kill all of them (because it's a high level cleric against human zombies) because he has line of effect to everything within 30ft of him because there are no physical obstructions.
The important distinction is there are things (like fog) that can block line of sight without breaking line of effect. Line of effect is required for almost all spells (some get a little weird if you try to run all of them with strict line of effect but those are rough edges I wont get into). Line of sight is required to choose a target.
You can also have things that block line of effect (like a force wall) but don't block line of sight. Though without line of effect you still can't do anything directly to the enemy.